Donkey Kong Country
Game Boy Color Game Boy Advance Virtual Console |genre = Platformer |ratings = ESRB: Kids to Adults |modes = 1-2 players }} Donkey Kong Country is a popular game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and was released in 1994. The game is known for being the first game to use pre-rendered sprites, creating a 3D effect throughout the game. The game is credited with bringing back the Donkey Kong character as well as starting a new franchise entirely based around new characters and gameplay. While Rare had made some popular games in the past such as Battletoads, Donkey Kong Country is credited with making them an industry well-known. Story :This based on the GBA remake's intro. The intro can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v90l6NniYKk One night on Donkey Kong Island, Diddy Kong, Donkey Kong's nephew, has taken responsibility of guarding DK's precious Banana Hoard for one night, as a part of his "hero training". Diddy Kong wants to be a big hero like DK some day, as implied by the sequence. Donkey Kong entrusts Diddy with protecting the hoard until midnight, while he catches up on some sleep. Everything seems to go smoothly in the hoard until Diddy hears some noises. Diddy hears some voices outside, and gets scared, asking who's there. King K. Rool commands his Kremlings to seal Diddy inside a barrel and hide him in the nearby bushes. Two ropes drop from above, and suddenly two Kritters appear. Diddy cartwheels them both easily, but then a Krusha comes in as backup. Diddy is not strong enough to defeat Krusha by himself, so is overpowered and defeated. Cranky rushes inside the treehouse to tell DK what happened. Cranky apparently woke him up from a nice nap. He then tells DK to check his Banana Cave (Hoard). Donkey Kong is infuriated, exclaiming that the Kremlings will pay for stealing his bananas and Diddy Kong. DK goes on to say that he will hunt every corner of the island for his bananas back. During this time, King K. Rool presumably loaded his cargo onto the Gangplank Galleon. Game Overview General Gameplay Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong work together in the adventure to get their bananas back. The gameplay in the game introduces a unique "tag team" element into play, unseen in most platformer games such as Super Mario World, which wa spopular at the time. For example, if one Kong was to be attacked and hurt, he would run away in pain, and was out of play until a DK Barrel was broken. Once both are defeated or either falls into a bottomless pit, a single life is lost. Diddy and Donkey Kong follow each other throughout the adventure, with their own unique attributes. Diddy can run slightly faster and can cartwheel and jump farther. Diddy is considered the best to use to get bonus rooms and other goodies to be found, though Diddy cannot handle some enemies by himself, namely Krusha. Donkey Kong runs a little slower, and his barrel rolling does not go as far as Diddy's cartwheel, though DK has his own special move called "Hand Slap", which can kill most enemies instantly. He can defeat some enemies Diddy could not, such as Klump or Krusha. Kong Allies 140px|thumb|Cranky Kong In the game, Donkey and Diddy are assisted in their perilous quest by a few members of the Kong Family. The first one seen in the game is Cranky Kong. He can give hints to the Kongs when they drop by his cabin, named "Cranky's Cabin". Cranky narrates and congratulates the Kongs in the ending of the game, and also appears to give commentary after the defeating the bosses in the Gameboy Advance version. Funky Kong makes his first appearance halfway through Kongo Jungle, and freely lets the Kongs use his barrel jet. The barrel jet allows them to quickly navigate maps the Kongs have finished, or simply navigate the area faster, with Funky's unique theme. He also hosts a fishing mini-game, "Funky's Fishing", in the Gameboy and Gameboy Advance version. Candy Kong allows the player to save their progress at her save point, Candy's Save Point. She is considered the most useful Kong. She also hosts a dance mini-game in the Gameboy Advance version. Animal Buddies The Kong Family are not the only ones to aid Donkey and Diddy in their quest, the wildlife also help. Each Animal Buddy is prisoner in a crate with their symbol on it. Rambi the Rhinoceros is first found halfway through the first level. He is a fan favorite, capable on rampaging through Kremlings and opening bonus rooms using only his powerful horn. Enguarde the Swordfish is exclusively found in underwater levels. Enguarde is a swordfish with a large bill, with it he can defeat practically any underwater enemy (with a few exceptions), while the Kongs cannot. Winky the Frog has a very high jumping ability, nearly three times as higher than the normal Kong's. With this ability, he can reach bonus rooms or simply avoid foes. He can defeat most enemies by jumping on them, including Zingers. Squawks the Parrot is the only non-rideable Animal Buddy, and he only appears once in "Torchlight Trouble". There, he carried a bright lamp to illuminate the way in the otherwise dark level. Squawks returns in the game's sequel with a more important role. Expresso the Ostrich is the tallest and fastest animal buddy. With his height, he can completely avoid small foes, commonly the Klaptraps. Expresso has no means of attack, but can glide good distances to find secret bonus rooms. EnguardeTSDKC.jpg|Enguarde File:ExpressoDiddy.jpg|Expresso RambiDKC.jpg|Rambi DKCsquawks.jpg|Squawks DKCWinky.jpg|Winky Items and Objects During their adventure, Diddy and Donkey will run in a variety of collectibles. Bananas are featured here, and become a signature object in future titles. Banana in bunches, properly named "Banana Bunches", are worth ten bananas. Every 100 Bananas earn an extra life. They are essentially DKC's equivalent to Mario's coins. Also found, various kinds of Barrels, which are commonly found in every level and common in future DK games. Rare Extra Life Balloons are worth extra lives. K-O-N-G Letters are featured in literally every level, and will give an extra life if the entire set is collected. In a few levels, a Tire allows the Kongs to bounce to new heights. Throughout the game, Animal Tokens will take the player to a minigame if three of the same type are collected. Lastly, the Minecart is used in two levels, and is ridden to navigate mine levels. Enemies Many enemies, grunts under K. Rool's army, will stand in the Kong's way. The enemies are very varied in DKC, and some, in one shape or another, return in the sequel and a few later games. A majority of these enemies, such as Gnawty and Kritter, are very common, though a few are rare, such as Chomps. The enemies mostly contain of generic animal-based foes. *Army *Bitesize *Chomps *Chomps Jr. *Clambo *Croctopus *Gnawty *Klaptrap *Klump *Krash *Kritter *Krusha *Manky Kong *Mincer *Mini-Necky *Necky *Slippa *Squidge *Zinger Bosses Bosses in this game are found at the end of each world (much like Super Mario World). Bosses are usually enlarged versions of usual enemies. The bosses guard a large portion of Donkey Kong's Banana Hoard. In fact, the arena where each boss is fought is comprised of portions of DK's hoard. Each boss (excluding K. Rool) is a bigger version of a generic enemy. They are, in order of appearance: *Very Gnawty *Master Necky *Queen B. *Really Gnawty *Dumb Drum *Master Necky Snr. *King K. Rool Worlds and Levels :This regards the SNES version. A few orders were tweaked in remakes. The "world" located before Kongo Jungle on the overworld map can not be accessed. The Kongs are shown to start off their journey by leaving this area and heading to Kongo Jungle. Kongo Jungle * Jungle Hijinks * Ropey Rampage * Reptile Rumble * Coral Capers * Barrel Cannon Canyon Monkey Mines * Winky's Walkway * Mine Cart Carnage * Bouncy Bonanza * Stop & Go Station * Millstone Mayhem Vine Valley * Vulture Culture * Tree Top Town * Forest Frenzy * Temple Tempest * Orang-utan Gang * Clam City Gorilla Glacier * Snow Barrel Blast * Slipslide Ride * Ice Age Alley * Croctopus Chase * Torchlight Trouble * Rope Bridge Rumble Kremkroc Industries, Inc. * Oil Drum Alley * Trick Track Trek * Elevator Antics * Poison Pond * Mine Cart Madness * Blackout Basement Chimp Caverns * Tanked Up Trouble * Manic Mincers * Misty Mine * Necky Nutmare (GBC only) * Loopy Lights * Platform Perils Gangplank Galleon This pirate ship is not a world, but the location of the final boss battle against King K. Rool. The Galleon can actually be seen approaching closer and closer each time a world is beaten until it's finally accessible after beating Chimp Caverns. Ports The game was ported to the GameBoy Color in 2000. Differences include: * There are three different title screens. * Much like Donkey Kong Land, only one Kong appears at time. * The Gameboy printer can be used. * The level "Winky's Walkway" was extended. * A new level called "Necky Nutmare" has been added in Chimp Caverns. * The Kongs don't ride the Animal Buddies; rather, they become them. * Two minigames have been added: Funky hosts a fishing game known as Funky's Fishing (which would be later reappear in the GBA port) and Cranky oversees a shooting game. * Two additional difficulties have been added: the first one removes DK Barrels and the second one removes Star Barrels. * Some of the music in Donkey Kong Land was reused. Another port was made for the Gameboy Advance in 2003. The changes for this one include: * Candy hosts a dancing mini-game at Candy's Dance Studio. * A "Time Attack" mode has been added. * The Rockroc enemy can now be defeated by using Donkey Kong's Handslap move. * Some enemies have many different colors, such as Kritter and Zinger. * Some bosses were made stronger: Queen B. now has three Zingers surrounding her, Really Gnawty can make stalactites fall, Dumb Drum must have a TNT Barrel thrown at it, and the battle against Master Necky Snr. is against both him and Master Necky simultaneously. * The map screen has a different pause screen: from it, the game can be saved, Funky can be summoned after meeting him, players can access a scrapbook and level stats. * The maps have been redesigned. * Starting from Vine Valley onwards, a few of the levels have been placed in a different order; for instance, Temple Tempest became the sixth level in Vine Valley, rather than the fourth. * The credits took place in Donkey Kong's Treehouse in the original; they now take place on the Gangplank Galleon. * A new mode called "Video game Hero" has been added. In this mode, the player controls a yellow-clad Diddy and will never encounter DK Barrels or Star Barrels. * Saving will save the number of lives the player had. * The automatic barrels that sent players to bonus rooms were replaced by the Bonus Barrel used in the sequel. * The game had more voices and sound effects. * A scrapbook was added, in which players had to collect Photographs throughout the game in order to add pictures to it. * In-game graphics and some sound quality were scaled down. Beta elements The preview video, Donkey Kong Country Exposed, contains a few beta elements that never made it into the final game, such as a 3-Up Balloon at Snow Barrel Blast. There were also a few instances where binary digits were seen underneath the lives counter, which may have been a debug menu of some sort. Also, in this build, it was possible to exceed one hundred bananas, whereas in the final game, the banana counter would reset once it reaches that number. Lastly, Donkey Kong was unable to kill the regular Krusha enemy by jumping on him. Unlike the final, Krusha will laugh after Donkey Kong does so, as he would if Diddy had done that. This also applies to Klump. In an old Scribes page on the Rareware website, a giraffe Animal Buddy was mentioned, and mentioned to appear in Donkey Kong Country; this Giraffe character was dropped for unknown reasons, though one of his mentioned abilities was that he would allow Donkey Kong to crawl up his neck and reach high items and secrets. There are unused sprites in this game, such as a Puftup, who would later appear in Donkey Kong Country 2, and a jungle plant. Unused DKC sprites Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong also have unused sprites. Unused Donkey Kong sprites Unused Diddy sprites Additional letters similar to the KONG Letters appear in some bonus rooms, though not all letters in the alphabet are used, and the game appears to have the entire alphabet left in the game's coding.http://www.dkc-atlas.com/forum/download/file.php?id=480 Additional unused letters Slippa has unused sprites as well http://www.dkc-atlas.com/forum/download/file.php?id=484 Slippa's unused sprites Reaction and sales At the time of its release, Donkey Kong Country was extremely acclaimed by critics and audiences alike. According to Gamespot, Donkey Kong Country has a critic score of 9.3, having over 90% from every critic. Praise went to its graphics, music, and overall fun and addictive game-play. Sales were more than expected, since the game was released at the peak of the 16-bit era, but when the Sega Genesis was at the height of its popularity, and the SNES witnessed its rise. The game had a successful first day at the stores, and sold 8.5 million copies worldwide, 2nd on the SNES to Super Mario World. To date, it is the best selling Donkey Kong game and the best seller by Rare. Although it won 1994's game of the year by EGM, it was later placed on their top 10 overrated games, as well as on Gamespy's overrated games of all time list. It has mixed reactions today, but is still well-received by fans, and is a cult classic. Gallery Kongs DKFirst.jpg|Donkey Kong Diddy1.jpg|Diddy Kong DK&DiddyRope.jpg|DK and Diddy on a rope FunkyDKC.jpg|Funky Kong Cranky.jpg|Cranky Kong CandyDKC.PNG|Candy Kong Enemies File:ArmyDKC.gif|Army sprite Bitesize.PNG|Bitesize sprite Chomps.jpg|Chomps ChompsJr.jpg|Chomps Jr. Clambo.jpg|Clambo Croctopus.jpg|Croctopus VeryGnawty.jpg|Gnawty 200px-Klaptrap.jpg|Klaptrap KlumpDKC.jpg|Klump DKCScene2.jpg|Krash (in background) KritterDKC.jpg|Kritter KrushaDKC.jpg|Krusha MankyKongImage.jpg|Manky Mincer.png|Two Mincers File:Mini-necky.jpg|Mini-Necky NeckyDKCBook.jpg|Necky Slippa.jpg|Slippa Squidge.jpg|Squidge File:ZingerDKC.jpg|Zinger Bosses VeryGnawty.jpg|Very Gnawty, first boss MasterNecky.jpg|Master Necky, second boss QueenB.jpg|Queen B., third boss R.Gnawty.jpg|Really Gnawty, fourth boss D.Drum.jpg|Dumb Drum, fifth boss MasterNeckySnrImage.jpg|Master Necky Snr., sixth boss KingKRoolDKC1.JPG|King K. Rool, the final boss Trivia * The Gnawty enemy is pictured as blue on the box art while they were gray in-game. They eventually became blue in Donkey Kong 64 and the GBA port. * This game has an adaptation in the Super Mario-Kun manga with some changes. Mario and Yoshi land in the Donkey Kong Country by mistake, and Cranky Kong asks to them help Donkey and Diddy in their task to find the bananas and stop King K. Rool. References External Links *"DKC Atlas", a fan-made site based on DKC *Backgrounds for world maps Category:Games Category:Donkey Kong Country Category:SNES Games Category:Remakes